In pace with technological development in agriculture and other technical areas, the electronics in agricultural machines and other machines have acquired an increasingly central role. Electrical/electronic systems were initially simple on agricultural machines, such as seed drills. Gradually, systems have been developed both by individual manufacturers and as standardised protocols, for example ISO Bus. In pace with the general trends in electronics and the development of specific software for agricultural and financial management, increasingly high demands are being placed on electronics for the control, monitoring and manoeuvring of e.g. seed drills. It also lies within the nature of the issue to integrate the electronics found on agricultural machines with the systems available for overall farm and business management.
It has according to the development in this area been produced holders for tablet computer or similar. Hence, different kinds of holders for a detachable tablet computer or similar are known from e.g. US 2012/0075789, US 2013/0120258 and US 2001/0045938. These devices are merely used to hold and control the tablet as a sort of keyboard facilitating the use of the tablet mounted thereon. US 2012/0206867 describes a device for mounting a holder with a tablet mounted thereon and a stowing device for tablets.
In recent decades we have seen very strong development and use of GPS systems, for example for logging the position of an agricultural machine, which logging can occur in rapid sequence, for example after every second. In such logging a range of parameters other than the geographical position can also be logged. These can include the working depth of the machine, the draught employed, the characteristics of the soil, the amount of seed or fertiliser metered out, the meteorological conditions or some other feature/parameter that one wishes to document and relate to geographical positions. Similar development can be seen in other machines such as aeroplanes, contracting equipment etc.
In recent years we have seen dramatic development of mobile electronics such as smart phones, mobile internet devices or tablet computers. These can for example be in the form of tablet computers sold under the sales name iPad or iPhone. Tablet computers open up new opportunities for an even higher degree of development of electronic aids for agriculture machines and other mobile equipment and vehicles.
An increasingly large number of functions need to be controlled on a modern machine. A seed drill is used here as an example of a machine, but this technique can also be applied to other types of machines, for example planters (precision seed drills) and machines that are used outside agriculture.
It can involve controlling the amount of fertiliser, seed or pesticide metered out. It can involve lifting, lowering the entire machine or adjusting different tools or applying the seed coulters with different pressures on different parts on the field. It can involve converting a measured value to a desired value, for example as regards drilling depth, working depth or other. For contracting equipment similar conditions also apply.
An increasing amount of data is desired to be collected for different reasons, some reasons relating to crop production technology, others to statutory requirements. For example, certain tasks may only be carried out in particular wind conditions. It can then be relevant to log and document wind speed, temperature, time etc. in a certain task. Maps have acquired central importance in modern agriculture and in contracting work it is often relevant to create maps during different operations such as drilling, excavation. It can be relevant to place out (sow) different amounts of fertiliser, seed or chemicals. This may need to be documented in real time or on one or more maps.
One requirement may be to order replacement parts directly from the field as a result of wear or breakdown.
The list can be made even longer with desirable functions that the farmer or contractor can have. It is then natural to consider the use of new technology for example in the form of a tablet computer sold under the sales name iPad or iPhone or any other known smartphone. These ‘devices’ have enormous potential for solving the abovementioned functions. They are not only computers, but can also communicate through GSM, WiFi and Bluetooth. However, they have a major disadvantage with touch screens in the environment in which they have to work. These are difficult to operate with the required precision in a shaky environment. They can also be too fragile for the environment in which they should work.